Rhythm of Love
by Surviving Sheika
Summary: A short, sweet Percabeth Valentine


Hey everyone! I just wanted to post a little something, I've been in a bit of an actual writing funk lately. I'm hard at work editing! I am determined to have a hard copy of the book in my hands before June (I'm going to do it, I promise!) And I have a minor goal of trying to get it up to 200 pages (woah!) but anyway. I wrote this little piece while listening to Plain White T's Rhythm of Love and it just inspired me so much. Its short, I know, I apologize, but it's something right? And sorry its up late, I wanted it finished/up sooner but I have Homework Helpers at the library for these cute little kids and then I had an english paper and work for a totally awesome history project (I wasn't out on any dates) so its up a little late. Please enjoy and feel free to message me and talk about anything if you want . . . or something. I don't know, have fun. Happy Valentines Day if you're happy, Screw Them, It's Only a Dumb Day, if you're not. Either way, it's pretty much over now.

Characters (c) Rick Riordan

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This was it, he had asked her to keep by the window tonight. For weeks now he had been planning this and giving away bits and pieces of his plan at a time. But never enough, never enough to let her see what he was planning. He only ever gave her the corner pieces of the puzzle. She could see blue and green and red but nothing about what he was really planning. But it was tonight. She was by her window. She was living in a large dorm room with four other girls, studying to be an architect. But he was leaving tomorrow, she started early for a pre-college program but he was starting normal time and he was leaving tomorrow, she looked at watch, today, actually. It had just clicked to midnight. After this they'd only see each other at breaks and back at camp. Camp . . . it seemed so far away now.

She turned and walked back to her bed, pulling a shoe box out from underneath it. She opened it and the first thing she saw was the picture of the two of them. One of the photographic daughters of Apollo had snuck up and snapped a candid of her asleep with her head on his chest and her hand pressed against him. He was leaning against a tree, the dryad of which was giggling in the upper corner of the picture, with one arm curled protectively around her and the other was draped across his stomach, with his hand resting on her arm. Inside were other pictures of the two of them together and separately along with her other friends. There were letters from everyone and trinkets from that summer's adventures. She looked at her watch again. _Maybe Chiron was right when he said_-

Her thoughts were cut off by a tap on the window. She ducked and put her hand under her pillow, gripping her dagger. Her battled instincts had saved her before, after all. She snuck closer but no one was outside the window. Lowering her dagger she opened the window. Still nothing moved. She stuck her head out and looked to the left. No one. To the right? Someone. Someone who leaned in close and quick and was kissing her before she even realized he was there. She dropped her dagger, it clattered noisily to the floor but she didn't notice, and kissed him back, a little deeper.

"Happy Valentines Day," he whispered as they pulled apart. He motioned for her to come out on the roof and she did so without looking back to see if she'd woken her roommates. He had a bouquet of flowers for her, roses and calla lilies and a dozen other little blooms, as well as a box of blue candies from the candy store where his mother worked. She looked inside and smiled, he had remembered all her favorites. He pulled her around to the widest part of the roof and leaned back, pulling her into him again. Above the stars were beautiful and the moon was full and glowing. "We may only have tonight but until the morning sun, but until then I'm yours. All yours."

"Mine. All mine," she said. "We can sway to the rhythm of love." And for that night they just sat there, curled in each other's arms. They talked about everything, kissed a little, slept a little. She never slept soundly enough unless she was wrapped in his arms. Something that had developed since their last big quest. She had been captured, taken prisoner, at one point. She had escaped, with some help from him and the others but since then she had trouble sleeping alone. She was always a little too alert, never completely relaxing, afraid she would be tied up again. It helped that others were sleeping in the same room as her, she could fall asleep faster and longer that way, but unless he was wrapped around her while she slept, she could never really let herself relax. And it was only him, she had tried it with other people, sharing beds at sleepovers and such, but it didn't work. It had to be him.

Just before the sun rose over the horizon he gently kissed her awake. This would be their last morning together, after all. They should treasure it. He stared into her twinkling silver-grey eyes and brushed her hair back from her face. Leaning in close he whispered, "If you kiss someone as soon as Eos rises, you'll be with that person forever."

"Count down to the sunrise," she whispered.

"Three . . ." she shifted into his lap, leaning on his hips. "Two . . ." she leaned in so she could taste his breath, eternally salty, and smelling like chocolate, ". . . one." She closed the distance and their lips met as the first ray of sunlight shot across the sky, a pink arrow that pierced both their hearts at once. By the time they pulled apart the sky was beginning to get light. He took her hand and pressed something into it, urgently. He whispered a last good bye and then scrambled back off the roof and out of sight just before one of her roommates found her outside and started demanding to know what she had been doing and who she was with.

But she ignored her for the moment, watching the sun rise on Valentine's Day morning. She opened her hand and resting on her palm was a necklace with a sea glass heart, three gold drachma and a note that said, quite simply, _I love you, Annabeth._


End file.
